I procured my ISBNs back in the 1980s for Globe Press Books, my first publishing venture. When that experiment had run its course, I continued to publish, but had to change the name of my publishing company since Globe had been a partnership that was subsequently dissolved.

That’s no problem for a publisher, because we can simply devise a new imprint for any separate publishing venture. These imprints usually refer to a specific line of books that address a similar readership or point of view.

Here’s an example of how publisher Pan Macmillan positions their Bluebird imprint:

Imprints allow a publisher to establish a brand identity for a cohesive line of books some of which may be aimed at specific segments of the market.

Here’s a list of the imprints of the huge Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group:

Of course conglomerates like Knopf Doubleday are not like you and me. Many of the names on this list have rich histories of their own in book publishing, and they were independent companies before being acquired and brought under one roof.

But the same principle applies. When I was publishing at Globe Press Books, for instance, I established a Fourth Way Books imprint for a specific audience interested in this niche topic.

CreateSpace and the Missing Publisher Name

CreateSpace has a wonderful interface for setting up your books, probably the best and easiest to use of all the ones I’ve seen, with lots of help available as you go through the setup tasks.

However, I found it odd that the “Publisher name” didn’t appear anywhere. Instead, when you indicate you’re going to be using your own ISBN and not one supplied by CreateSpace, you are presented with this dialog asking for the ISBN and your “Imprint Name.”

If you click the little “What’s this?” link, here’s what CreateSpace has to say:

Now as we just saw, a Publisher Name is not an Imprint Name, they are different, and we’ve seen that one publisher can have many imprints. So it doesn’t really make sense that “… the publisher… is your imprint,” does it?

I Feel So Rejected

Sure enough, when my book went into their review process, it got rejected. I had entered the imprint I was using, in this case “Marin Bookworks.” But one of the things that goes on during the review is that CreateSpace will actually check your account at Bowker—who issues the ISBNs to publishers—to make sure (for security reasons) that your entry matches.

And mine didn’t. My publishing company was listed as “Joel Friedlander, publisher”. My Bowker record also showed the imprints I had used in years gone by, but not the name I was now publishing under.

I spoke to a Technical Services Manager at CreateSpace, and found out that whatever you enter on their title information setup under “Imprint Name” has to match either the Publisher Name or an imprint name in your Bowker record.

Well, I’ll just add Marin Bookworks as an imprint name, right?

When I went to look, there was no way for a user to create an imprint name. For a minute, I was stumped. Did it mean I would have to open another account at Bowker, with the added expense of new ISBNs? I didn’t want to do that.

Or would I have to change my publishing company’s name just to conform to this security check for CreateSpace? That didn’t make much sense.

In the end, I got in touch with a Senior Analyst at Bowker, who explained their own take on imprints:

“What is an Imprint? A trade name used by a publisher to identify a line of books or a publishing arm within the publishing organization. … An imprint is distinguished from a corporate name in that it does not represent an entity with a corporate life of its own.”

She affirmed that there was no way for a user to add an imprint. However, Bowker acts quickly on customer requests to adjust their record, and provides an email address for that purpose: PAD@bowker.com. (Don’t forget to include one of your ISBNs so the bibliographers there can identify your record.)

That’s what I did to solve the mismatch that had my book suspended on the eve of publication. Bowker made the change within 24 hours and the book passed review at CreateSpace a few hours later.

Now, my publisher record at Bowker shows both my newly-changed publisher name and the other imprints I’ve used over the years:

Looking to the Future

I’ve been writing recently about how authors can continue to “evolve” in their publishing ventures, either by becoming more entrepreneurial, or by starting to publish the books of other authors, or by creating a cooperative publishing venture with other authors.

In all of those scenarios, the ability to create targeted imprints for specific lines of books can be a great strategic marketing tool to know about.

Even a single author, publishing her own books, might use an imprint if she decided to publish in a new genre, if it’s completely unrelated to her original one.

This historic practice of publishers is another tool you can add to your arsenal as a self-publisher.

How would you use an imprint in your own publishing business? See any need for one? I’d like to hear.

Thank you for the useful information. My question is about establishing your claim to your imprint.

For example, I have a sole proprietor pub company. Let’s call it “Good Books”. I have the ISBNs at Bowker. I wanted to do as you said and create an imprint for a more specialized genre. I filled in “Action Books” at Bowkers where it asks for “imprint”. Amazon’s CreateSpace (now KDP) had no problem with it.

But… my question is: how do I legally establish the claim over my imprint? What prevent someone else from coming along and starting a company of his own called “Action Books”? It doesn’t sound like you have to do everything all over again (separate bank account under new name, etc) for every imprint. But do you need a DBA for each of them? Is there more to it than that?

Kerri, I always recommend setting up a legal company entity (sole proprietorship, sub S, C, LLC, whatever is appropriate) for a publishing company. You can set up a separate dba/company for each imprint but if it were me, I would check with my attorney and accountant and find out how best to set one or more up for my particular situation.

I have a question about imprints that no one has been able to answer so far.
I set up my own imprint under sole proprietorship and bought my own bowker ID numbers. I published two books so far. The third book coming out is written with a co-author and I was planning on publishing it with KDP Amazon with my imprint. My co-author is now concerned that I will “own” the book if we publish under my imprint. The copyright is registered 50-50 for us. I was told that I would not “own” that book as no agreement was made between us for that. What are your thoughts about publishing a book with a co-author under my imprint in terms of rights?

To make sure I understand: ABC Press LLC is my publishing company as a indie author/publisher and if I have 3 genres, each one can have a imprint. The only thing that is a legal business is the ABC Publishing LLC. The imprints only need to be registered with my state as a DBA and each imprint will have its own ISBN. Is this correct?

Marla, you’ll have to check with your applicable government agency as to whether each imprint needs to be registered or not and I think it’s a good idea for each of your imprints to have its own set of ISBNs but it doesn’t have to.

Hello… I just purchased a set of ISBNs through Bowker. For “Organization Name” and “Publisher Imprint,” I am using “Longitudes Press LLC” (my wife and I recently registered for LLC here in Ohio). But I see Bowker has an entry for “Add Imprint.”

For publicity, and on the copyright page of my book, I only want “Longitudes Press” (no “LLC”). Should I put “Longitudes Press” in the “Add Imprint” box? Or should I leave this box alone? Thanks!

Your article was very helpful, but I want to make sure that I understand. I am going to start my own publishing company and will be buying ISBNs from Bowker. If I decide to use a different imprint name in the future, will I need to buy new ISBNs for that imprint? Will the publisher number in the ISBN always be the number of my company name, no matter how many imprints I use?

Margaret, Joel ran into the same problem that you’re asking about. See the section above “I Feel So Rejected” and follow the steps that Joel outlines, which should also solve your situation (buy your ISBNs in the name of your publishing company and then contact Bowker to add your imprint name.

Thank you for this help. I am working on publishing a first book. I could use some help with the imprinting. My blogsite is called, The Conversant Counselor. Would that work? Or the website name? Thank you.

Joel,
Really appreciated this article. My business name is Anne Peterson Poetry, for an imprint for my memoir, can I just use my name or initials since it is a different genre? Or can I just use APP which could also stand for Anne Peterson Publishing?

I’ve read through so many of the comments and still need clarification.

Anne, you have several choices: (1) you can use Anne Peterson Poetry, (2) you can use another imprint (APP), or (3) you can use APP as your publishing company overall and have Anne Peterson Poetry and any other imprint under that main publishing company banner. Large publishing companies do this all the time (they publish numerous genres).

Why?
"Writers change the world one reader at a time. But you can't change the world with a book that's still on your hard drive or in a box under your bed. This blog exists to help you get that book into people's hands."—Joel Friedlander